Working Mom of Three, History Buff, Writer, World of Warcraft Addict. . .My Comments on My Crazy Life.

For the Alliance! Yeah, that’s been me, for two years now. I’m the defender of the light, Champion of the Frozen Wastes, Hero of Orphans, and Protector of the Faith. Okay, so I made up those titles. . .but they are so much cooler than the ones I actually have on my toons. (Rezina the Pilgrim? My blood-thirsty Death Knight Melificent is actually “Melificent the Love Fool”? PLEASE!)

Hubby and I had a lot going on this fall. I was working two jobs, and Hubby’s working on non-WoW related projects. The kids were struggling to transition into their new school year. Okay, my daughter was struggling. My baby boy makes straight A’s and is in the top reading group in his class. My oldest boy took two art classes at the community college and plays WoW more than I do. My daughter, well, she was having a rough time and needed more attention. So, Hubby and I took a WoW break. It was a good time, since we were bored with grinding Frost Badges to gear up for yet another harrowing ICC run. We explained to our good friends on our two guilds that we were taking time off, and went away. We even deleted our lower level toons.

Fast -foward a few weeks. My daughter’s grades and behavior is improving. My part-time job has ended for the semester. Patch 4.01 comes out. Our oldest boy is bopping around the house telling us about the exciting changes. Cataclysm might actually be coming, he says.

Later that night, the kids were in bed, and Hubby and I were on the couch watching television. He says to me, “You know, we could go to another server, roll a Horde toon, and just try it out. Just to see something different?”

So, we first rolled some casters–Blood Elf Mage and Warlock. I didn’t figure this would last. I had just deleted a level 20 Undead Warlock on the other server. I remembered how hard the gind had been just to get her up to level 10–and she was so horribly ugly! I cannot stand to play ugly toons. (Space goats are not ugly! Yes, they have birthing hips, but so do I, and I am not ugly!)

We found the new changes interesting, to say the least. We played in little fits, here and there, not trying to let the addiction consume us again. On the weekends when the kids are with their fatheer. we’d play a little more. The patch changes and the new talents made leveling easier than we’d experienced before. Our prior experience with the classes helped us understand the finer aspects of class mechanics. Hubby’s main is a warlock, and I know mages from leveling Kayanna, so we were able to coach each other along. Hubby taught me about the finer aspects of using DoTs, and I helped him figure out a good spell rotation for a fire mage. We quested through the Barrens, the earth shaking beneath our feet, having as much fun with the game we had in the beginning.

I got an itch to try something different–to see another starting area before the major changes occured. And so, I rolled a Tauren Druid.

I had leveled a Tauren Shaman all the was up to level 12 once. I love the Native American-style lore behind the Tauren, but I do not appreciate the way they move. They lope around slowly; graceless, oversizsed cows walking on two legs scratching their fleas. Luckilly, with the new patch, druids can go into cat form at level 8. With the touch of a button, she goes from lunky cow to graceful lioness. I fell in love with my Tauren, and have been solo-leveling her ever since. In a little under a month, I have her almost to level 40.

Questing changed last week, when “The Shattering” occured. Now, one week away from the new expansion pack, hubby and I are enjoying new quest chains in the Southern Barrens and the Hinterlands. We have found the quests to have engaging story lines with interesting objectives. Now when we are told to kill 10 spiders, we’re actually given a reason that makes sense. We laughed at one quest giver in Razor Hill–a blonde headed goblin girl. She flirted with my hubby’s toon when she spoke to him, but she called me a tramp and told me to get away from her men! I am starting to become intriqued by goblins, when before I had no interest in playing one. After all, they are not the most attractive creatures.

So, does this mean I have converted to the dark side? Have I abandoned my Alliance Toons completely? Not on your life. They will all need leveled up to 85 after the expansion pack is released. And maybe I will earn cooler titles for them while leveling them up.

But, I play on sticking with my new Warlock and Druid as well. . . and maybe making a sassy little goblin chick too.